Midnight Clear: A Callahan Garrity Mystery (Callahan Garrity Mysteries) - Hardcover

Trocheck, Kathy Hogan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060175435 ISBN 13: 9780060175436

Publisher: Harper, 1998

Synopsis

In six previous books, Kathy Hogan Trocheck's Callahan Garrity series has risen to the apex of Southern suspense. Now the acclaimed sleuth's latest outing shows how amply she and her creator deserve their acclaim, as Callahan and the outrageous band of "girls" in her Atlanta cleaning crew set out during the Christmas rush to prove her no-account brother innocent of his ex-wife's murder.

It's a few days before Christmas and Callahan thinks for once she has things under control. Her presents are all bought, her baking is almost done, and she's relaxing with a well-earned drink when her brother, Brian--missing for over ten years--strolls through the door, whistling off-key carols and lugging his two-year-old daughter, Maura, in his arms. Happy as she is to see her charming brother and her ever-more-charming niece, Callahan hasn't forgotten that Brian carries trouble wherever he goes. That's never been truer than now, for Brian reveals he's kidnapped Maura from his estranged wife, who's on the warpath and, of course, has the law on her side.

When Brian's ex-wife is found dead in her spectacularly messy apartment, the law comes down on Brian big time. True to form, Brian disappears again, leaving Maura behind for Callahan to look after, and forcing her to clear his name without his help. For Callahan knows that although Brian is many things, he's no murderer. As the Christmas rush picks up, Callahan, her irascible mom, Edna, and a gaggle of House Mouse employees submerge themselves in the most dangerous undercurrents of Atlanta street life, and head for wherever else in the New South's yuletide their search for truth leads them.

In true Trocheck tradition, Midnight Clear is heartwarming, chilling, and hilarious--a thoroughly up-to-date and irresistible Christmas tale.

About this title

Review:

Christmas festivities and family bonding provide the backdrop in this seventh mystery featuring cleaning service owner-operator Callahan Garrity. While Callahan and her mother Edna are busy preparing trifle and a potent Garrity version of eggnog for their annual Christmas bash, Callahan's youngest brother, Brian, appears after a 10-year absence. Edna is thrilled, both with Brian and with the granddaughter he has presented; Callahan is more dubious, particularly when it becomes clear that her brother has been in town for well over a year and that he has taken the 3-year-old Maura without her mother's permission. Callahan, with pressure from Edna, agrees to help Brian fight the custody battle against his ex, but things only get more complicated once the woman is found stabbed to death. Police, not surprisingly, put Brian at the top of their list of likely suspects. After all, if he is willing to commit one felony by kidnapping his daughter, what's to prevent him from murdering her mother?

Despite overtones of O.J.--Brian is also accused of occasionally resorting to violence--there is much to enjoy here: Edna's toilet-training philosophy, Maura's precociousness, and the suburban South's peculiar social dimensions (just what constitutes white trash, anyway?) provide much to chuckle over. Callahan and her band of merry mop-bearers take on the police, Brian's mother-in-law, and even Brian himself to demonstrate his innocence so that he can stay out of jail and secure custody. Callahan is an admirable and entertaining heroine. Kathy Hogan Trocheck has a lighter touch than Sarah Paretsky or Sue Grafton, and Callahan is rarely as unforgivably foolhardy as counterparts V.I. Warshawski or Kinsey Milhone can be. With Callahan and her more charming relations at the novel's heart, Midnight Clear offers jolly holiday reading with both poignant and hilarious moments. --K. Crouch

About the Author:

Kathy Hogan Trocheck is the author of ten critically acclaimed mysteries, including the Callahan Garrity mystery series. A former reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, she is also the author of Little Bitty Lies and the EdgarŽ- and Macavity-nominated Savannah Blues, under the name Mary Kay Andrews.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0060175435
• ISBN 13: 9780060175436
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288